


A Friend In Need

by AmazonX



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Abortion, Gen, Unwanted Pregnancy, bestest buddies, no judgement, pre-marital sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-03 23:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1074368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmazonX/pseuds/AmazonX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy made a huge mistake, and while trying to hide it from her friend, she doesn't realize that would be the greatest support she'll need.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Friend In Need

**Author's Note:**

> I was reading "Raspberry" by Buzzcat, and this idea came to me. I was totally inspired by that story, and borrowed a phrase from it, as well. What if Steve, when he was still little, took a girl to get an abortion, like a buddy? And did that for Darcy? And didn't judge her, and why didn't he judge her. I literally read that story then opened a Word window and started typing and finished last night. It was beta-ed by the awesome Emyrldlady, and here you go. Kudos and comments would be nice, thank you!

Darcy kept looking at her watch nervously. She looked over at Steve, who was reading “Stranger in a Strange Land” and it didn’t look like he would leave any time soon. She could feel her stomach churning, and knew she’d throw up soon, but she wouldn’t make it to the bathroom in her suite, and didn’t want to throw up in the small lavatory on the common floor. But didn’t have a choice. It came up to her throat and it was all she could do to run to the toilet, lock the door behind her and toss.

After she was done, and washed her hands, face and rinsed her mouth about a hundred times, she wasn’t expecting to see Steve standing outside the bathroom waiting for her.

“Are you OK, Darce?” he asked. They’d become pretty good friends over the last few months, at least Steve thought they had, and he felt completely comfortable asking why she suddenly became ill.

“I um…don’t feel so good…” The walls around her started to darken and suddenly, she was enveloped in Steve’s arms. She could tell there was movement, and voices, but the buzzing in her ears was drowning things out.

When next Darcy was lucid, there was a cold cloth on her forehead, Bruce was taking her pulse and Steve was standing above her, with Natasha, staring down in concern.

“Oh my Thor, what happened?” she asked.

“You fainted,” Bruce said. “Steve had JARVIS call me here. What do you remember?”

“Everything…oh Bruce, I’m sorry. No, I’m fine. I think I have a stomach bug, really, you can go.”

“Well, no, I want to give you an exam. If your stomach is upset, there’s a reason…”

“No!” she said loudly. She sat up, pulled the cloth from her head and tossed it on the table before she got up and went to the central stairs that linked all the residential floors to the common floor. It was a wide spiral, which usually made her ill going down, but going up this time, she stomped her bare feet (when had someone taken her shoes off?) and made her way to her suite.

Darcy knew she slammed the door, and must have thought she locked it, but when Steve walked in, carrying her sneakers and socks, she rolled her eyes, frowning and cursing JARVIS in her head.

“Hey, what was all that about?” he asked. “You didn’t need to bawl out Bruce like that. He was just trying to make sure you’re tip top, OK?”

“Like my grandfather used to say, I’m top drawer.” She folded her arms and huffed a sigh, then checked her watch again.

“Ok, what’s going on? You got a date? You just upchucked and fainted and you keep checking your watch like you’re an expectant father…” and then the penny dropped for Steve. She turned to him, face going from anger to guilt in a flash. He knew. “Darcy…OK, are you…you know…in…trouble?”

That’s when she started to laugh. He would say it that way. That’s the way he knew it. And she supposed that it was what she really was. “Yep, that’s me, in trouble, up the duff, bun in the oven, I’m pregnant.”

Steve looked down at his own shoes, still holding Darcy’s and not knowing what to do with them. But he quickly recovered and tossed them by her coat rack. He went to where she sat and took the space beside her. He was a little surprised when he had an armful of crying Darcy, but he didn’t hesitate as he pulled her into his arms and stroked her arms and back, whispering to her that everything would be alright and that he was there for her.

When finally Darcy pulled herself back together, and went to the bathroom to splash cool water on her face and gargle with mouthwash, she came back out and sat on the coffee table to look at Steve.

“Remember that party where I was dancing with that one guy from accounting, Michael?” she asked.

“The one who you said was boring and you were glad he was transferred to the SHIELD Idaho office?”

“Yes. Well, he…”

“Say no more.” Steve took a deep breath, trying to calm his temper, but the color was rising in his face. “Do you want me to tell him he needs to do the right thing?” he asked, giving her the patented Captain America “Don’t-Fuck-With-Me” face.

“Oh God no!” she said, holding her hands out in protest. “No, Steve, I don’t want him to know! I don’t want anyone to know. This is my fault, my mistake! I shouldn’t have gotten so plastered. I shouldn’t have…”

“Did he force you?” Steve asked, standing and probably ready to run all the way to Idaho to kill the poor accountant.

“No, Steve, no. I’m pretty sure I coerced him, well, probably the girls did that,” she said, indicating her bosom. He sat back down. “No, I just want to…”

“Well, I’ll…certainly…I mean, if you want, I will marry you, so that…”

“Steve! Shut it! I do not want to marry you…at least, not because of this.” Darcy covered her face with her hands, and Steve noticed she’d taken her nail polish off. She had lovely nails, always letting them grow long and she kept them polished in interesting colors. He loved that about her, but having clean nails was different. Darcy took a deep breath and then continued. “Look, I don’t want to be a mother…not right now. Do you…”

And the penny dropped yet again. Absently, Steve thought he’d get quite a bit of money out of this, if he keep figuring things out, and if he found out where the pennies came from. 

“Darcy, are you…what do they call it now…terminating…it?” Steve tried to keep his tone even. He didn’t want Darcy to think he was judging her, because honestly, he wasn’t.

“Yeah, I’m getting rid of it. I have an appointment at two at a clinic not too far from here. I just…I wanted to ask someone to go with me, like as my…”

“I’ll go. I’ll be there for you,” Steve said quickly. He didn’t want Darcy to have time to say no, or wheedle her way out of his offer. He wanted it to be firm.

“No, Steve, you don’t have to, really. I was going to call Jane. I was just waiting for her to wake up, since I know she was up late last night with research. Really, she can…”

“No, Darcy. No. I will take you there, I will wait for you, and I will take you back to my place in Brooklyn to recuperate in private. I know you’ll need rest for a few days…well, things have…come a long way.”

“What?” she asked. Steve had turned his face away, trying to hide the rise of color in his face. But Darcy reached out and turned his face by the chin back to look into his eyes. The puppy-dog eyes were firmly in place.

“I…you…let’s just say…I…you’re not the first dame…woman I’ve helped like this…before.”

Darcy waited a beat, letting the words settle in the room.

“What does that mean?” she asked quietly.

“It means…oh damn, OK, can I like cook something so I don’t have to look at you while I tell this story?” Steve liked to cook breakfast and while he did, he would tell Darcy all sorts of stories from his past, which she loved to hear, especially the ones that happened before he was Captain America, when he was just Steve Rogers from Flatbush.

They moved to her small eat-in kitchen with the counter bar for two. She sat, drinking the ginger ale Steve had poured for her and waited for him to start. Steve was mostly cooking for himself, he knew, but he needed something to do with his hands, something else to look at while he talked.

“So, back when I was scrawny, there was this dame who was a little…you know…loose. Everyone kinda knew. She was trying to go with this guy who didn’t give a flip about her, he was just waiting to ship out to the war. Well, he took her…for you know…”

“A tumble,” Darcy provided.

“Right. And she got in trouble. Only I didn’t know it when she agreed to go out with me, on a double date with Bucky, and she took me to this place, like it was a room, but it wasn’t hers. And she was…my…”

“Your first time? Really, Steve? Oh, I’m sorry!” Darcy was sincere in her dismay. She really didn’t want such heartache for her friend.

“No, it’s OK. I don’t even think it would have happened back then if not for her. Well, she was the only one until I became big. But…she tried telling me it was mine, that I got her in trouble, and that I needed to do something about it.”

“Oh, wow, what a bitch!” Darcy exclaimed.

“Hey, look, back then, that’s what dames had to do. They weren’t like you all are now, getting respect for being your own person. Well, I asked her how she could know, cuz I paid attention in biology, and my mom was a nurse, too. I mean, it had only been a week, she couldn’t know she was in…”

“Say pregnant for me, Steve. Just once, please?”

Steve looked up from the eggs he was whipping and rolled his eyes. “PREGNANT!” he said very slowly and emphatically. “Can I finish?”

“Please.”

“OK, so I asked her just that, and kinda looked at her. She was looking a little puffy. And she broke down and told me the truth. And I kinda…knew someone who could help her. My mother knew a doctor who would help girls like that, back when she was alive, when I was a kid. And I looked him up, and he remembered me, and he…helped the girl.”

“You took her for an abortion.” Darcy sat back on the tall chair and was blown away. “I am so…impressed. Wow, Steve, that’s a nice thing to do for her.”

“Yeah, and I paid for it. It cost me all my savings, but the doctor promised me he would cover my next illness for me. Which were plentiful.”

“Oh wow…you’re such a good guy, Steve!” Darcy said. She stood from her chair and went to him, putting her arms around his neck and pulling him into her tight hug. Steve put down the spatula he held and squeezed her just tight enough before he hurt her. He knew her limits as Darcy liked tight hugs.

“Ok, I want you to take me. And mum’s the word, no one knows about this. I feel so stupid, so ridiculous. You’d think I’d know better…”

“Darcy, stop. Everyone makes mistakes. Thankfully, this one doesn’t have to ruin your life, like it did in my day. You don’t know how many kids were in the orphanage with me that were just thrown away, because the mother couldn’t get help. And not even just the…procedure, but even like rubbers or anything. I mean, nowadays, you ladies have way more choices.” Steve paused a moment to blush. Then he said, “I always felt sorry for those kids, because no one would adopt them. Like me, they aged out of the system. I got lucky and went to art school and started working in the school so I could pay my way. Most kids, not so much.”

“Well, now that I’m in my place…I can’t eat anything. And I have to stop liquids in an hour. So…I’m gonna get a nap. You eat, clean up, and wake me up at one o’clock, OK?” She looked up at her friend and smiled.

“Of course.”

Steve watched as she walked to her bedroom and closed the door. He sat at the counter bar and ate his scrambled eggs and waffles, then cleaned her kitchen for her. He went to his own room, pulling his tablet out to look up the clinic she was going to and looked into their medical accreditation and history. JARVIS had the information from Darcy’s internet search and had sent it to Steve in an email. Steve was impressed at their website, which didn’t mention anything more than that they were a women’s health clinic, putting women’s health needs first. He knew that was a kind of code. 

The same codes were used when his mother helped girls find doctors to help them. Some girls wanted the full operation to never get pregnant, and some girls just wanted the one procedure to help them out. What he remembered the most was his mother telling him never to judge a girl by her circumstances. Some girls weren’t in that situation by choice. Every story was different.

At one on the dot, Steve went into Darcy’s room and gently shook her awake by the shoulder. Her eyes opened and she looked up into the smiling face of her friend, and smiled back.

“Morning, sleepy. Well, afternoon, anyway. It’s one. We should get started, right?”

“Hey, cutie,” she said, gently pinching his cheek. She rose from the bed, stopped by the bathroom to freshen up, and by 1:30, they were on their way to the elevator. When they went past the lobby, Darcy looked up at Steve.

“I borrowed one of Tony’s cars. I told him I’d bring it back in a few days. He wasn’t really paying attention, cuz of you know, science. But hey, we have a Bugatti! It’s a really snazzy car.”

Darcy smiled and shook her head. Only Steve would call a Bugatti snazzy. When she saw it, though, she wasn’t sure she thought it was a good idea to drive it across town.

“Don’t worry. I drove one of these in Italy. A count let me tour around with his. The building has a parking garage for patients. Don’t worry, I know where you’re going.”

“I didn’t say where I had an appointment.”

Then she sat back, after buckling her seat belt and frowned. “Fucking JARVIS.”

“My apologies, Miss Lewis,” came the voice from the car speakers. “I deduced that Captain Rogers would want to know where you were being treated.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Darcy sat back in the leather comfort while Steve smoothly steered them through midtown traffic to the tall building that housed plenty of offices, including many medical suites. They went down the parking ramp under the building and followed the signs to patient parking. Steve turned off the engine and they sat in the car for a few minutes, not speaking or looking at each other.

“Are you ready, Darcy?” he asked, calmly and quietly.

“Yes, I am. Are you sure…you won’t hate me?” she asked, turning with wide eyes to him.

“I could never hate you. And I don’t think what you’re doing is wrong. I’m here because you’re my friend, and I care very much about you, and you need someone to be with you to reinforce your decision.”

“Thank you,” she croaked out, tears filling her eyes. She pulled off her seat belt, as did Steve, and they embraced. They separated and Darcy pulled the sun visor down to wipe her face. They exited the car.

Steve held her hand in the elevator, ensconced behind large mirrored sunglasses, a baseball cap and his jacket hood pulled up over that.

“I got news for you, Stevie, people are noticing you.”

“But they don’t know WHO I am, do they?”

“True. OK, you ready?”

The doors opened into a quiet medical outer office. There was a pleasant woman sitting at the desk who looked up and smiled at them. She was Asian, with light brown eyes and long, silky hair. Darcy wanted to be her immediately.

“Good afternoon. Miss Lewis?” she asked.

“Yes, thanks. I…”

“Of course. Please, you both may follow me.”

The entire procedure went very smoothly, everyone speaking softly, smiling a lot and being very supportive. They even let Steve stay in the room, letting him hold her hand, since she wanted to be awake the whole time. Afterward, she was allowed to leave quickly because everything went so well, and with both of them being told all aftercare instructions, Steve led her back to the car, and he drove it to his place in Brooklyn. It was a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, and he even had a driveway for the car, and a little backyard.

It turned out, Steve was the only occupant of the whole three floors, and Darcy smiled. “I’ll bet the top floor is your studio, right?” she asked.

“You know me so well. Come on, you’ll like the guest room. And you have your own bathroom.”

Steve led her in and showed her the first floor huge kitchen, the living room and the dining room, even the little half-bath down there. The second floor held his room and bathroom, and her room and bathroom. The top floor was one huge room with his different art supplies, his desk and drafting table, and lots of bare windows.

“I packed a bag for you while you slept, and stupid forgot it in the car.”

“Oh Steve, so silly. I can wear something of yours, right?” she asked, going into his bedroom. She began going through his dresser looking for his things, finding a white t-shirt that had SSR on it, and then she pulled out a pair of his shorts.

“OK, mister, go make us some tea and find me something on the television downstairs. I’ll change and come down in a minute.”

Steve smiled. He went down and did her bidding, then waited until she quietly padded down the stairs to sit with him on the couch. She looked at him, just looking into his eyes.

“Thank you, Steve, for everything.”

“Oh, Darce…”

“No, let me say this. You didn’t judge me, you didn’t give me the ‘you should have known better’ speech, and you didn’t once act like any of this was an inconvenience. You’re the perfect friend. And you’re an amazing man. And I’m so genuinely lucky to have you in my life. And I never want to have to live without you. By choice, anyway.”

“You proposin’ to me, doll?” he asked, smirking.

“You’re such an ass!” she said, grabbing one of the throw pillows from the couch and doing just that with it. He ducked easily. “I’m making you watch Adventure Time, now!” she said, grabbing for the remote control. Steve sat back and pulled her to lie against him as they watched television and sipped their tea. They would worry about food, or telling people, or dealing with how their relationship had changed that day later. He didn’t want her to worry about anything that moment, just to rest, relax, and heal herself. And he would deal with what he was to her later.


End file.
